Mega maize project in Madagascar planned

The South Korean company Daewoo Logistics wants to use 1 million hectares in Madagascar
to grown maize. The company also wants to plant palm oil on the island.

"We hope we can launch the project as soon as possible," Shin Dong-hyun, the
Daewoo official in charge of the project said. South Korean business groups have
expressed interest in investing once the deal is finalised, he said.

A
manager at Daewoo, Hong Jong-wan, said: "We want to plant corn there to ensure
our food security. Food can be a weapon in this world. We can either export the
harvests to other countries or ship them back to Korea in case of a food
crisis." However, infrastructure is a problem, as there is hardly any, he
said.

Daewoo plans to bring in agricultural experts from South America
and South Africa to work on the project. Labourers will mostly come from
Madagascar, with a few from South Africa, he said. The project could end up
creating more than 70,000 jobs on the island.

Meanwhile, a European
diplomat in Southern Africa commented that "there will be very little direct
benefits [for Madagascar]", adding that "extractive projects have very little
spill-over to a broader industrialisation". "The deal Daewoo is negotiating with
the Madagascan government looks positively neo-colonial and the Madagascan
people stand to lose half their arable land, according to a Financial
Times editorial.